Hillsborough School Grades Checking

As a result, 33 Hillsborough schools received a D or an F from the state in 2022-23 — by far the most among Florida’s 67 districts, and more than double its total the year before.

Prior years’ grades are reported in the 2022-23 grade data. I add up the number of D/F school for recent years. Note that 33 D/F schools is not that unusual for Hillsborough.

Source: Florida Department of Education

district_name	df_2023	df_2022	df_2019	df_2018	df_2017	df_2016	df_2015
Hillsborough had 33 D/F-rated schools in 2022-23, twice the number as the previous year.
HILLSBOROUGH	33	14	28	33	35	43	46
MIAMI-DADE	5	1	1	5	14	36	63

Together the 33 campuses serve the equivalent of a small city, with 18,000 kids.

I use Florida Department of Education school enrollment data to calculate the total number of students in D/F schools. I join school grades and enrollment using school number.

Source: Florida Department of Education

Grade	number_of_students
Number of Hillsborough students by school grade
A	55523
B	36447
C	77131
D/F	17987
I	899

Roughly one in eight teachers at Hillsborough’s A schools had less than three years’ experience in the district, the Times analysis found. At the D and F schools, it was nearly one in three.

We got employee logs from Hillsborough County Public schools from the 2018-19 school year through 2023-24. The logs include the employee’s name, age, role, school and date hired by the district.

Using the employee’s role, I identified instructional staff as anyone teaching an identifiable subject (e.g., Math or English), coaches and counselors.

I used the hire date to determine how long the employee has been with the district.

Grade	share_tenue_le3yr	share_age_le30yr
Teachers at D/F-rated schools are younger and have less experienve, on average.
Elementary
A	12.8%	10.5%
B	17.9%	12.1%
C	19.1%	15.8%
D/F	29.1%	17.7%
Middle
A	12.4%	7.5%
B	14.7%	7.9%
C	27.1%	15.5%
D/F	39.8%	16.1%

The teachers at D/F schools also have less experience in their school. Roughly three in five teachers at D/F-rated schools have less than three years of experience at their school.

Grade	share_at_school_less_than_3yr
Teachers at D/F-rated are less experienced at their school.
Elementary
A	34.1%
B	41.9%
C	46.6%
D/F	58.2%
Middle
A	36.4%
B	36.9%
C	59.4%
D/F	65.1%

Tenure data for the 33 schools:

More than one-third of teachers at D/F schools had been there for less than 3 years.

Share of instructional staff with less than three years at...

Those schools relied on substitute teachers twice as often as A schools during the 2022-23 academic year.

TK

Of the roughly 1,200 notices the school board handled last year, about 20% were at the D and F schools. Together, the schools serve only about 10% of Hillsborough students.

Marlene

In addition, the schools had 19% of the Hillsborough teachers with “alternative certification,” meaning they arrived from other professions and were still in training, according to state records.

Marlene

They had 24% of the teachers who were rated “unsatisfactory” or “needs improvement” in 2021-22.

Marlene

Records show the school hired substitutes for 638 shifts in 2022-23 — more than four times as many as Ballast Point Elementary, an A school in South Tampa with a few more students.

Marlene

CHANGE: Hillsborough schools have become more racially and economically segregated over time

Suggested revision:

Families who opt out of poor-performing schools are more likely to be white, which helps make concentrate Black and Hispanic kids in D and F schools.

df_school	share_leave_white	share_leave_black	share_leave_hisp
White students leave D/F-rated schools at a higher rate than Black students.
FALSE	0.2842912	0.3308218	0.2626966
TRUE	0.5926333	0.3682128	0.3575751

In 2022, Hillsborough was the third most segregated district by income among the 10 largest schools districts. Pasco and Palm Beach were more segregated.

This isn’t a new problem. The district was the second most economically segregated in 2012, behind Palm Beach, among the 10 largest districts.

This finding is robust, using both Florida Department of Education Survey 3 data, and National Center for Education Statistics Common Core Data. I use the raw number of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, excluding the “USDA multiplier.” With the multiplier, Hillsborough is the second most segregated among the 10 largest districts.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core Data; Florida Department of Education

District	Race	Income
Hillsborough is among the most segregated schools districts in the state, by both race and income.
A higher disparity index value indicates more segregation.
CLAY	0.34	0.58
ST. JOHNS	0.11	0.46
PASCO	0.18	0.44
LEON	0.48	0.41
PALM BEACH	0.46	0.41
WALTON	0.12	0.39
COLLIER	0.49	0.36
MANATEE	0.39	0.36
BREVARD	0.28	0.34
HILLSBOROUGH	0.36	0.34
Race measures the difference between white and non-white students. Income measures the difference between students who qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch and those who do not.

Hillsborough was the third most economically segregated district, among the 10 largest districts.

Records show that Shields, along with Hillsborough’s four other D-graded middle schools, had seven times the number of fights and physical assaults per student as the district’s A-graded middle schools in 2022-23. At the D and F elementary schools, the rate was 7.6 times higher than A schools.

Grade	Schools	Incidents	Incidents Reported to LEO
Low-performing schools had more fights and attacks.
Mean number of incidents per 100 students, by school type and 2022-23 baseline grade.
Elementary
A	68	0.25	0.01
B	44	0.70	0.05
C	108	0.61	0.01
D/F	54	2.16	0.07
Middle
A	32	0.84	0.02
B	18	3.23	0.26
C	46	4.94	0.26
D/F	12	6.12	0.50

25 of the D and F schools had two or more principals in the last seven years. Robles Elementary in Tampa had five.

Marlene

Eisenhower Middle, a large D-graded school in Gibsonton that reported 128 fights to the state in 2022-23, has changed principals five times in the last decade.

Eisenhower reported 128 fights in 2022-23.

Hillsborough School Grades Checking

Ian Hodgson

2024-03-25

As a result, 33 Hillsborough schools received a D or an F from the state in 2022-23 — by far the most among Florida’s 67 districts, and more than double its total the year before.

Together the 33 campuses serve the equivalent of a small city, with 18,000 kids.

Roughly one in eight teachers at Hillsborough’s A schools had less than three years’ experience in the district, the Times analysis found. At the D and F schools, it was nearly one in three.

Those schools relied on substitute teachers twice as often as A schools during the 2022-23 academic year.

Of the roughly 1,200 notices the school board handled last year, about 20% were at the D and F schools. Together, the schools serve only about 10% of Hillsborough students.

In addition, the schools had 19% of the Hillsborough teachers with “alternative certification,” meaning they arrived from other professions and were still in training, according to state records.

They had 24% of the teachers who were rated “unsatisfactory” or “needs improvement” in 2021-22.

Records show the school hired substitutes for 638 shifts in 2022-23 — more than four times as many as Ballast Point Elementary, an A school in South Tampa with a few more students.

CHANGE: Hillsborough schools have become more racially and economically segregated over time

Records show that Shields, along with Hillsborough’s four other D-graded middle schools, had seven times the number of fights and physical assaults per student as the district’s A-graded middle schools in 2022-23. At the D and F elementary schools, the rate was 7.6 times higher than A schools.

25 of the D and F schools had two or more principals in the last seven years. Robles Elementary in Tampa had five.

Eisenhower Middle, a large D-graded school in Gibsonton that reported 128 fights to the state in 2022-23, has changed principals five times in the last decade.

Families who are zoned to attend the 33 schools are moving in large numbers to an ever-growing number of magnet and charter schools.